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Now retired but busy still living..

Wednesday 9 March 2011

ANOTHER DELIVERY...

THE LARGE BOX
INSIDE THE BOX - WHEELSET
THE BRACCIANO
PRO-LIGHT MAKE A BIG THING OVER THE FACT THEY ARE HAND BUILT
This week I took delivery of another parcel.......This time it was a LARGE parcel....Not a small box like the mini wind turbine I posted about last time. This time it was a BIG box and on the side it said 'PRO - LIGHT  Built the hard way - by hand.'
What could it contain..? Yes it was a wheelset. I have been thinking about up-grading the wheels on the Tifosi for a few months. The stock wheels that I got with the bike were OK but they were a bit heavy. They were Miche (Italian) wheels and they performed pretty well all things considered. However...I'm a cycling enthusiast....I am programmed to up-grade..!! So I decided to buy a new wheelset and keep the originals as a spare set.
But what to buy? That was not an easy decision.

When I bought the FELT I decided to go for a set of Fulcrum Racing Zero wheels. I really love that wheelset as they are light..they look great with the red spokes they climb with real zest and sprint like a rocket. So I thought I might go for another set of Fulcrum wheels- not another set of Zero's - at almost £1,000 I certainly couldn't spend that amount again - no this time I would be looking more at something along the lines of the Fulcrum racing 3's.
I checked out no end of wheels on the Internet. It was starting to drive me mad..All the wheels I liked I wasn't prepared to pay the price that was being asked. Lets face it everyone likes a bargain and I wasn't really seeing any bargains.

I subscribe to a number of Cycling magazines and in their wheel reviews one name kept coming up time and time again. PRO - LITE - BRACCIANO. In lots and lots of wheel tests the Bracciano's kept on getting very high marks.
In a number of magazines such as 'Cycling plus' they got the highest marks.
They are a reasonably light set of wheels - approx 1460-1480grms (like all wheels they do vary slightly) apparently they spin up to speed really quickly - they climb really well and they are a good stiff set of wheels.

When Cycling plus tested them the price of the wheels was quoted at about £360 so when I saw them for £235 I couldn't leave them in the internet shop could I..?

Funnily enough in the Cycling plus wheel test one of the other sets was the Fulcrum racing zero's...the Bracciano's beat them- in fact they were voted the 'Best in Test'.
Although they were not as fast or quite as good when climbing as the zero's they won overall as a balance of all these functions and PRICE...It was thought that they gave the most 'Bang for your Bucks'.

So that's what I have bought for the Tifosi and although they are not Italian made like the Zero's they do have an Italian sounding name...
I have also bought new tyres (conti gatorskins for training) and a new 12-25 cassette (lot's of hills in this part of the world) I should fit all this at the weekend ready for next weeks rides.

On the subject of rides...I started riding again today. First trip out after a break of just over four weeks I managed a distance of 45 miles...I just took it nice and easy and enjoyed the scenery.

12 comments:

Steve A said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Oak said...

Ooh baby, those look like nice wheels! Glad you were able to log some miles today.

Steve A said...

Regardless of the merits, "Bracciano" is almost as lovely a name as "Campagnolo" or "Alfa Romeo."

John Romeo Alpha said...

Nice wheels at a nice price...love it! Looking forward to some road reports on them.

limom said...

Great you are back riding!
Nice hoops too.

The bike shed said...

Enjoy - half the fun is opening the package and simply looking at your new bike

Melody Fox (aka the Princess of Rock) said...

Well, here I am, to wish you all the best, Trevor, and...welcome back onto your riding-biking pack! (;o)*

Just today I was thinking of you and writing to you...and, sure enough my ESP is working! I just read that you started biking again on the 9th! great! happy happy for you! (but...try not to over do it, my friend...get some rest)

smiles from across the roaming miles...

the Princess of Rock
Love Peace Music

(p.s.: the little profile tag says Italy, but I am USA...don't know how to change it)

byte byte

MrDaveyGie said...

"I couldn't leave them in the internet shop could I..?"

You think just like me. LoL. I think the best upgrade one can do is the wheel set.

Fast come back 45 miles good ride.

BoaB said...

The wheel set sounds like a great investment Trevor. I'm looking forward to a road review.

Cheers
BoaB

GreenComotion said...

Happy Riding on them new wheels, Trevor!
Peace :)

DBG BICIS said...

Un saludo desde Catalunya Trevor!
A pesar de mis limitaciones con el ingles, sigo tu blog.

Salut i Pedals !

TrevorW�� said...

Thanks for the comments everyone - I will certainly be posting a report on these wheels after a few hundred miles...
-Trevor


DPG
Bienvenido a mi blog .. Me alegro de que os guste la lectura.
En septiembre de este año voy a ser el ciclismo en toda España - Voy a estar en la cresta de Gibraltar al Reino Unido .. ¿Quién sabe que podría incluso encontrarse ..!
Un cordial saludo
Trevor

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